Forensic testing will become the norm

“In time, forensic technology will be adopted as part of the universal specification of bunker fuels,” says John Dixon, managing director of leading fuel-testing agency Lintec Testing Services. “As fuel testing technology and methodology develops, owners and charterers benefit from better and more sophisticated techniques to screen out unwanted

contaminants. These developments will undoubtedly be incorporated into future fuel standards. Lintec is pleased to be at the very forefront of companies driving this progress.”

Lintec’s state-of-the-art Gas Chromatography Mass Spectrometry (GCMS) screening programme for detecting waste chemicals in bunker fuel has proved enormously popular with clients. This high-end analytical tool for bunker quality investigations offers an extra layer of forensic protection on a routine basis, at very small cost.

The service gives Lintec a technical edge over its competitors. Section 4.1 of ISO 8217 requires that bunker fuel “should not contain any additional substance or chemical waste which jeopardises the safety of ships. Lintec?s GCMS programme provides an additional set of checks to make sure the bunker fuel complies with section 4.1 of ISO 8217, with the added bonus of reducing the risk of engine damage. Lintec is the only fuel tester to

routinely check marine fuel samples to meet this criteria,” Dixon says.

Lintec’s GCMS programme tests for chemical contaminants before the fuel is needed for burning. It is not the intention of the programme to test fuel samples for the presence of all chemicals, but to identify volatile waste chemicals which have been known to cause severe engine damage.